“Here,” Jennifer said putting a sandwich in front of Brian.  “Debbie sent it.”

Brian grimaced.

“You eat it,” Craig said.  “You can’t stay here all night if you are not strong enough, can you?”

Brian muttered something and started eating.

“Did you call Cynthia?” Craig asked.

Brian nodded.  He was amazed that they knew so much about his life.  

“Your mother called me,” Jennifer said.

“What the fuck for?” Brian asked.

“She’s worried,” Jennifer told him.  “She told us that if we needed help with the kids to let her know.”

Brian stared at his sandwich.  “She only cares about them.  She hates the idea of me and Justin together.”

“Don’t think about that now,” Craig told him eating the food that Debbie had sent.  “Debbie’s cooking is really good,” he pointed out.

“And there is cake too,” Jennifer told him.

“I am not eating that,” Brian told her.  

“The kids are asking for you,” Craig said.  “When are you going to start staying at the house?”

“I don’t want to talk about it,” Brian said.  “Just give them a kiss and tell them that I’ll be home soon.”  Brian couldn’t tell them the truth, that he couldn’t face being in the house without Justin. He knew it would never really be a home again until his blond returned to it. 

Jennifer sighed and nodded.  She gave a firm look to Craig that said ‘don’t talk about it anymore’.

“It’s late,” Brian said.  “I’m not eating anything more.”

“You barely touched it,” Jennifer protested.

“I have to go back,” Brian told them as he got up.  

Craig and Jennifer watched him go.  “I wish he would let someone else stay with Justin.”

Jennifer nodded.  “He’s right.  It’s late.  We should go back.”

Craig got up.  “I’ll go tell him that we are leaving.”

“I’ll call Molly to check on her,” Jennifer said while she picked up whatever was left of the food.

Craig nodded and went to get Brian.  When he got to the room Brian was slightly snoring in a chair.  He knew the man barely rested. “Brian,” Craig said shaking the brunet.

Brian opened his eyes and sat up quickly.  “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” Craig told him.  “I just want to let you know that we are leaving.”

Brian looked up.  “What?”

“We are going home,” Craig said.  “The kids are with Jack and Debbie but she needs help.  She needs to take care of her own grandchildren.”

Brian rubbed his face and nodded. “Yeah,” he got up, “I should have known that.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Craig told him.  “Do you want to come with us?”

“No,” Brian said.  “I have to stay here with Justin.”

“I can stay or Jennifer,” Craig offered.

“No,” Brian shook his head.  He wasn’t going to let anyone else stay.

“Okay,” Craig said.  “We’ll take care of everything.  Your father is waiting for us at her house.”

Brian just nodded.  “Thank you Craig.”

Craig shook his head.  “You don’t have to say that.”

Brian rubbed his face and moved the chair closer to Justin’s bed.  He slouched and slowly fell asleep again.  He never saw that Justin’s fingers had moved.

***

Jennifer was walking to the bed with Keefe when she almost had a heart attack.  “Brain.”

Brian turned around and arched a brow.

“When did you get here?” Jennifer asked.

“Bwian,” Keefe said trying to reach for Brian.

“Daddy,” Jennifer told him.

“Dada!” Keefe yelled.

Brian picked his son up.  The boy smiled as his little fist grabbed Brian’s fingers.  It had been almost a week now since he had last since his kids.

“I decided that tonight I am going to stay with them,” Brian took a deep breath.  “They need me too.”

Jennifer nodded.  “I’ll go tell Craig that you are here.  Do you want us to stay?”

“It’s up to you, Jen,” Brian told her.

Jennifer left Brian alone with his sons.

Brian put Keefe on his crib.  “Night.”

Keefe looked up at his father and then laid back.  He didn’t go to sleep.  He grabbed his stuffed frog and started babbling.  

Brian moved to Sheridan who was already sleeping and caressed the boy’s head.  “Night, Sonny boy,” he left the door ajar in case anything happened he could hear them.  They weren’t using the monitor anymore.  He went to check on the girls to make sure they were okay.

“Brian,” Jen said when he was in the living room.  “Craig and I are going to stay in the guest room.  That way we can help you if you need us.”

Brian nodded.  “Thanks.”

“Night, Brian,” Jennifer told him.

Brian went and turned off all of the lights.  Even though the kids, Jen and Craig were home he felt alone.  He walked to Liam’s room and opened the door.  He saw that the boy was sleeping.  He went over to him and picked him up before he went to his bedroom.  

Liam fussed a little bit.  “Daddy,” he took a deep breath and went back to sleep.

Brian put the boy in the bed and lay next to him.  He was crying by now his fingers playing with his son’s hair.  “You look so much like your father, little man.”

Liam rolled around in the bed until he was close to his father.  Then he started burying himself closer to the brunet, looking for the warmth that his father provided.

Brian cried silently as he caressed the boys back.  He needed Justin beside him.  Brian couldn’t lose his best friend and lover.  Justin was the one with the patience and understanding.  He couldn’t deal with all the kids alone.  He wasn’t going to be able to look at all of them in the face and tell them that their father was never coming back.  It would destroy him and his family.

***

Debbie was coming out of the hospital when she saw Chris.  She walked to him and tapped him on the shoulder.

“Debbie,” Chris said.

“What are you doing here?” she asked.  “Where are the kids?”

“They are with Mom,” Chris told her.  “I came to see Justin.”

“Oh,” Debbie smiled.  “That’s nice of you honey.”

“I have to talk to him,” Chris said.

“What about?” Debbie asked a little confused.  “He’s in a coma honey.”

“I’m sure he will hear me,” Chris told her.  

Debbie nodded.

“I want him to pull out of this,” Chris said.  

Debbie hugged him.  “You are a good man.  I’ll take you to his room.”

Chris nodded and followed her.  

“Here it is,” Debbie said. “Brian moved him to a private room.”

“Who is in there?” Chris asked.

“Craig,” Debbie told him.

Chris went inside.  “Hi.”

Craig looked up and stopped reading.  He got up and smiled.  He looked at the book.  “I know this seems weird but I used to read these books to him when he was younger.”

Chris smiled.  “I think that’s a good idea.”

Craig nodded and looked at Justin.  He looked back at Chris.  “You probably want to be alone with him.”

“That would be nice,” Chris told him.

Craig put the book on the chair and walked out of the room.

Chris walked closer to Justin.  “Justin,” he whispered, “hey.”  He wasn’t sure of what he was going to say.  He looked at the blond for a very long time.  He got close and grabbed one of Justin’s hands.  “I know you can hear me.  After all, they say hearing is the last thing a person loses.  We learned that in school, remember?  And you are only in a deep sleep, you are not dead.”

Chris pouted for a few seconds.  “Michel died and...I’m not saying this to upset you.  Is just...is so hard, Justin.  We miss him so much.”

Justin remained unmoving.

“And I thought that I should tell you that you need to wake your ass up because Brian is going out of his mind,” Chris swallowed.  “I know he is.  He just tries to hide it.  You and I both know that.  I don’t want him to be suffering like me.”

Justin’s eyelashes moved a bit but Chris didn’t see it. 

“I know you are strong and you are doing your best,” Chris moved to kiss Justin on the cheek.  “Don’t give up.  We’ll be waiting for you.”

Justin kept fighting even if no one was noticing it.

***

“Oh my god!” Emmett shrieked.

“Are you trying to make me go deaf?” Ted asked as he stopped the car.

“We are here, Teddy,” Emmett said opening the door to the car.

Ted turned the car off and got out as well.  “Could you relax?”

“Okay,” Emmett said trying to look like he wasn’t about to explode.

“I don’t want to get your hopes up and then be disappointed,” Ted said.  “If there is a more qualified family they’ll give the baby to them.”

Emmett took a deep breath.  He knew that and he would have to deal with that if that was the case.  “We’ll just keep on trying.”

Ted nodded and the two of them walked inside the building.  

“I hope Justin is doing okay,” Emmett said suddenly.  “I mean I am here so fucking happy.  They say that when you are so happy something bad happens.”

“Don’t say that,” Ted told him frowning.

“Mr. Honeycutt and Mr. Schmidt,” Karen Millington said as she walked over to them.  “We were waiting for you.”

They both shook hands with her.  

“We are so happy to see that you want to do this,” Karen told them.

“We are very eager,” Ted told her.

“Come with me,” Mrs. Millington said.

They started following her and stopped abruptly when they notice a shy solitary girl. 

“Honey,” Karen said talking to a girl.  “Shouldn’t you be with everyone else having lunch?”

The little girl clutched her stuffed animal to her chest and sucked on her thumb.  Karen sighed and didn’t say anything else.  The beautiful little girl was always walking around alone.

“Who is this?” Emmett asked as he squatted in front of her.  “Hi.”

The girl only stared back at him.

“Hi,” Emmett said again to her.  “My name is Emmett and this is Ted.”

The girl looked from Emmett to Ted.  She smiled briefly and then went back to sucking her thumb.

“What’s her name?” Ted asked.

“Alicia,” Mrs. Millington told them. “She’s four and a half.”

“She’s beautiful,” Emmett told them.

“She doesn’t talk,” Mrs. Millington told Emmett.

“She’s mute?” Ted asked in a low voice.

“No,” she said.  “She doesn’t want to talk.”

“Oh,” Emmett said.  

“The baby that we are going to see it’s this way,” Mrs. Wellington said.

“Emmett,” Ted said.

Emmett grabbed Alicia and stood up with her.  “Who is going to adopt her?”

“We don’t have much demand for four year old girls,” Karen said.  “They want mostly new born babies.”

“You make it sound like a business,” Ted told her.

“Sadly this is the way it has come to be,” Mr. Willington told them.

Emmett frowned.  “I want her.”

“What?” Karen asked.  “I thought you said...”

“I know what we said,” Emmett put the girl back down and moved towards Ted.  “Are you with me on this?”

“Are you sure you want to do this?” Ted asked.

“Yes,” Emmett told him.  “I already went through all the baby stuff with Abe.  It’s not like I am going to be missing much.  She’s still a little baby.  Look at her Teddy.  She’s beautiful.”

Ted nodded he thought the girl was adorable.

“If you are sure,” Karen said.  “Come with me then.  We are going to start the process.”

Emmett kissed Ted and then turned to Alicia.  He offered his hand to her and the girl looked at it.  “Come on.  We’ll just go sit for a while and if they let us we can go out and eat and have fun.  Maybe we could go to the park.”

Alicia kept on sucking her thumb.  She looked at her teddy bear and gave it to Emmett.  Emmett grabbed it slightly frowning but smiled when the girl put her hand up.  Emmett took it and they walked after Mrs. Millington.

***

When Brian arrived at the hospital pretty much everyone was in the hallways pacing or sitting around and looking very anxious.  “What’s going on?”

“Brian,” Jennifer said getting up.

Craig stopped pacing and walked over to Brian.

“What’s going on?”  Brian asked again.

“He woke up,” Jennifer said happy.

“The doctor is examining him right now,” Craig said.

Brian’s eyes watered feeling relief and ecstatic at the news.  He needed to see Justin and confirm with his own eyes this minor miracle.  When he entered the room the doctor was asking the blond if anything hurt.  Everyone else took the opportunity and followed Brian inside.

Justin shook his head and turned to look at the people that were coming into the room.

“He looks okay.  His vitals are stable and he should be fine,” Doctor Raymond told them.  “We are going to do a few tests and if everything goes well he will be able to go home.”

“He looks pretty scared,” Chris said.

“Sunshine,” Brian muttered.  His hands grabbed Justin’s face and he kissed the blond.

Justin pulled away trying to shrink away from Brian.  Brian let him go and moved away in shock.

“What’s wrong with him?” Brian asked.  “He won’t let me touch him.”

“It’s probably a residual side effect of the trauma he experienced,” the doctor said.  “Physical contact may make him anxious.”

Brian nodded slowly. 

“It’s frequently seen in patients after a life-threatening event.  We can work with him through rehabilitation and therapy,” the doctor said.  “It will probably take some time but you must be patient.”

Brian bit his lower lip and wished the answers were that simple.  But Brian felt in his core that something else was wrong.  Justin would never pull away from him, not him.

“My baby is okay,” Jennifer said smiling.

“We are so happy to see that you are going to be fine,” Debbie told him.  “We were so fucking worried.”

“Yeah,” Lindsay said giving him one of her biggest smile.

Justin just kept looking from one person to the other.  Chris came close to him.

“Are you okay?” Chris asked.  “What’s wrong Justin?”

Justin frowned and in a frightened voice asked, “is...is that my name?”

Everyone in the room froze not sure what the hell was going on.